Ancient towns of italy

The ancient peoples of Italy, generically called Italics, are the different peoples, tribes and ethnic groups that inhabited, during prehistory and protohistory, the peninsula italic. These peoples were mostly of Indo-European origin and arrived in Italy in the course of the 2nd millennium BC. C., especially in the context of the culture of the urn fields, although there were also those of pre-Indo-European origin, native inhabitants prior to the invasions of the Italic ethnic groups.

Origins and etymology

Ancient Italy was inhabited by populations differentiated both by their languages, uses and customs, as well as by socio-economic structures and religious and artistic expression, until the political, and later linguistic and cultural, unification of the peninsula, carried out carried out by Rome during the republican era.

The name Italy has been in use since ancient times, at least since the 8th century a. C., initially to designate the southern regions, and later also those in the center, of what is known as the Italic peninsula, referring to the Italic peoples, speakers of the languages also called.

According to the Greek historian Antiochus of Syracuse, the word Italy designated, before the century V a. C., to the southern part of the current Italian region of Calabria —the old Brucio—, inhabited by the itàlii, the southernmost group of the Italics (currently this area includes the Calabrian provinces of Reggio, Vibo Valentia and parts of the province of Catanzaro). It is possible that the Italics took their name from an animal-totem, the calf, which, in a distant sacred spring, had guided them to the places where they settled permanently.. Also, according to the archaeologist Pallottino, the name Italia would derive from the adjective of one of the native Italic peoples of the Calabria region, the (v)itàlii, which shared its name of his sacred animal: the calf (viteliú in the Oscan language, vitulus in Latin and vitello in Italian); and that it was used by the ancient Greeks as a general term to designate the inhabitants of the entire peninsula.

In the II century B.C. C., the Greek historiographer Polybius called Italy the territory between the Strait of Messina and the northern Apennines, although his contemporary Cato the Elder extended the territorial concept of Italy to the Alpine arc. The term was definitively consolidated, especially since the Italic city of Rome, from the V century a. C., gradually unified the entire peninsula conquering and federating the rest of the peninsular Italic peoples, beginning with the Latins, of which it constituted a village, and ending with the Etruscans to the north and the Brutians to the south, thus unifying all the peninsular territory under a single regime and giving it the name Italy, which, since then, will constitute the metropolitan territory of Rome itself.

The name Italy was also used on coins minted during the Social War by the coalition of Italian socii (allies), fighting against Rome and the other cities Italics already provided with Roman citizenship, to obtain, in turn, full Roman citizenship, which was granted after the Social War to all free inhabitants of Italy through the Lex Plautia Papiria. Later, northern Italy (former Cisalpine Gaul), was officially added to the territory of Roman Italy in the course of the I century B.C. C., thus taking, de iure , the name of Italy to the foot of the Alps; meanwhile, the islands of Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, will not become part of Italy until the < century. span style="font-variant:small-caps;text-transform:lowercase">III d. C., as a consequence of Diocletian's administrative reforms, although their close cultural ties with the peninsula allow them to be considered as an integral part.

Indo-European migrations

Italy was densely inhabited at least since the Neolithic. The diffusion of metallurgical technologies apparently occurred due to the migration of new populations, which could be organized patriarchally and would have spoken Indo-European languages. Modernly, four waves of migrations from the northern Alps can be distinguished:

1. A first wave of migratory, probably indo-European, was given to the third millennium BC. These are characteristics of this period the Menhir-type stools or statuaries, which frequently had engraved solar signs, apparently indo-European distinctive signs.
2. A second wave between the end of the third millennium and the beginning of the second millennium a. C. led to the diffusion of populations associated with the culture of the campaniform vessel and the bronze in the plain of the Padana, in Etruria and in the coastal areas of Sardinia and Sicily.
3. Around the middle of the second millennium B.C., a third wave corresponding to the culture of terramaras and the subgroup of italic peoples known as latin-falis, which spread the use of iron and the incineration of the dead.
4. Towards the end of the 2nd millennium and the first half of the 1st millennium B.C., the fourth wave is associated with the culture of the urn fields and the subgroup of italic peoples known as osco-umbros (and probably also others the Latin-faliscus), lepontius and venetos.

Ethnic landscape at the beginning of history

Italic peoples as such, including all those who appear in Italy at the beginning of history, represent the product of conditions operating within the first millennium BC. C. in the peninsular territory. Ethnic identification and historical development constitute the two facets of the same phenomenon, for which the roots in the past form one more element, which, in truth, at certain moments, can play an important role, partly by their own entity, partly by the use or abuse that is made of them.

In this way, the legendary past comes to play a new role precisely when the recent configuration of ethnic groups is becoming more solid. The Indo-European waves only adopt an ethnic personality within Italy and only become aware of it within from Italy.

Protohistoric Period

In protohistoric times, some peoples already lived in stable settlements from more or less remote dates, while others were still nomadic. They are people who speak different languages, but belong to the same group, known as Italic, from the family of Indo-European languages, such as the Latino-Faliscans, the Osco-Umbrians (or Umbro-Sabelians), the Venetians and the Sicelians; Others instead speak Indo-European languages belonging to different groups, such as the Italiots (ancient Greeks from the south of the Italian peninsula), the Yapigos and the Celts. While the Etruscans, Retians, Northern Picenes, Sicans, Elimos and Sardinians, belong to linguistic groups of another origin, not always identifiable, but certainly not Indo-European.

According to ancient tradition, the Brutians and the Lucanians, of sabellic lineage, would have prevailed, from the 6th century B.C. C., to the autochthonous populations of current Calabria and Lucania, known by the name of italos, morgetes, enotrios, conios and ausonios. The Sicels would also have moved successively towards the eastern part of Sicily, pushing the Sicans and the Elymos to the west. Going back up the peninsula, along the chain of the Apennines, there are numerous peoples of Sabélica lineage: the Alphaterni near Nuceria, the Campanians near Capua, the Sidicines of Theano, the Frentani north of the Gargano, and the Samnites -the sabelians par excellence-, subdivided in turn into four tribes: Hirpinos, Caudinos, Pentros and Carecinos, who inhabited eastern Campania, Molise and the southern part of Abruzzo.

According to ancient sources, the Sabélios occupied the territory of the Ausonians and the Oscans. While the name of the Ausonians disappears, the denomination "oscos" It is maintained to designate, in more recent times, the population of sabellic lineage, whose language received the name of Osca. The other peoples who spoke Oscan-type dialects, who lived in northern Abruzzo and in eastern and southern Lazio, such as the Sabines, the Marsians, the Peligni, the Marrucinos, the Vestinians and the Picentines, were related to these lineages. along the coast of the Adriatic Sea. In southern Latium and in western Abruzzo the Aequi, the Hernics and the Volsci settled. Its linguistic type seems to be closer to Umbrian, an innovative variant of Oscan, than to the authentic Oscan. The Umbrians, for their part, inhabited the part of present-day Umbria along the left bank of the Tiber, from where they reached the Adriatic coast as far as Ravenna, probably in the 6th century BC. C., from the osca area.

In the ethnic picture of southern Italy there are also the Apulian peoples such as the Yapigos (the Apulians of the Romans). Polybius and the Greek geographer Strabo call all the people of Apulia yápigos, who, in reality, were divided into three groups: the Daunians in the north of Apulia, the Peucetians in the center and the Messapians in the south of the region. The Messapians arrived in Italy in the mists of time, coming from the Balkan Peninsula, as witnessed by the presence of Yapides in northern Dalmatia. The Latins settled, already in very ancient times, between the lower course of the Tiber and the Alban mountains. They immediately established contact with people of the Oscan language and in particular with the Sabines, who, gradually introducing themselves into their territory, destroyed the original ethnic unity. A population nucleus closely related to the Latins from the linguistic point of view were the Faliscans, in eastern Lazio, near Civita Castellana.

The territory between the banks of the Tiber and the Arno belonged to the Etruscans, the Tyrrhenians from the Greek sources, who distinguished themselves from the neighboring peoples by their non-Indo-European language and by their absolutely original cultural forms.

The Ligurians originally inhabited the territory between the Apuan Alps and the Rhône, but over time their settlements were restricted to present-day Liguria and Piedmont. They were subdivided into tribes, among which the Apuans, the Taurines, the Salasses and the Lepontius stood out for their warlike ferocity. Celtic elements from central Europe infiltrated the territory of the Ligurians in prehistoric times, which could justify the fact that ancient authors sometimes considered the Salesians to be Celts and other times Ligurians.

The historical Lepontii of northern Lombardy and the adjoining Canton Ticino were people of Celtic origin. It is difficult to pinpoint the border between their territory and that of the Retios, a mountain people who occupied the current Trentino-Alto Adige, extending to transalpine areas. Finally, to the south and east of the Retios, there is an ethnic group already defined in the 9th-8th centuries BC. C., the people of the Venetians, who also inhabited part of present-day Carniola and Carinthia.

Sardinia and Corsica have always gravitated towards the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa, but they also maintained close contacts with Italy. They were inhabited by the Sardinians and the Corsicans, who, according to Diodoro, were descendants of ancient Iberian populations.

Around the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C. C., groups from Mycenaean Greece reached Sicily and Apulia and, later, to the Gulf of Naples and Etruria. In the tenth century B.C. C., the Phoenicians also began to frequent Sicily and Sardinia. The first Greek colonial enclaves, Ischia and Cumae in the Gulf of Naples, Naxos and Syracuse in Sicily, date back to the 8th century BC. c.

In the sixth century B.C. C. Celtic infiltration began in Lombardy and Emilia, although the definitive settlement of the Celts did not take place until the middle of the 5th century BC. C. Subdivided into several tribes, they occupied Lombardy and Emilia reaching the northern Marches. Considering the role played by the Italic peoples in the history of the peninsula, it is surprising how little interest shown by ancient writers in comparing them.

Languages of ancient Italy

Languages of Italy pre-Roman: C1, Galo; C2, Lepontico; I1, Southern Picnic; I2, Umbro; I3-I8, Osco-Knowlio; I9, Sculle; N1, rhetic; N2, Etrusco; N3, Picénico de Novilara; N4, Ligur; N5, Nurago(?); N6-N7, Sicano-Elimo; G1-G

The attested languages of ancient Italy belong mostly to the Indo-European family, although there are also clearly non-Indo-European languages such as Etruscan, and there are even attested peoples for whom we lack sufficient evidence to classify their languages. The classification of the ancient languages of Italy is important to determine the origin of the peoples of ancient Italy or at least the provenance of some of its inhabitants. The attested languages are included in the following groups:

• Indo-European indigenous languages of Italy
  • Italic languages, spoken in central and southern Italy, and subdivided into two macro groups:
    • Osco-umbra languages
    • Latin-faliscal languages.
  • Celtic languages of Italy, spoken in the northwest of Italy.
  • Paleobalcanic languages of Italy, which would include a heterogeneous group of languages spoken by the yápigos, among which is the mesapio language (respected with the lyric languages).
  • Venetic, spoken in the northeast of Italy, possibly italic or independent.
• Non-indo-European indigenous languages of Italy
  • Tyrenic languages, which would include:
    • Etrusco
    • Rhetical.
  • Northern Picénico, known for the registration of Novilara.
  • Non-European languages of Sicily:
    • Sican
    • Elimo.
• Italian Indo-European Languages:
  • Ancient Greek dialects, implanted by Greek colonization.
• Italian non-indoeuropean languages:
  • Púnico de Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, implanted by the phenician colonization.

Another language such as Ligurian, known only by place names, is difficult to classify, although it has been suggested that it could be a pre-Indo-European language with strong Indo-European influences derived from contact with Celtic languages. We have no evidence of other languages, such as the pre-Roman languages of Sardinia associated with the Nuragic civilization.